Digital still cameras enable users to achieve more satisfactory pictures in comparison to film still cameras, since users may see their captured images in near real-time, take multiple pictures without exhausting their resources and easily manipulate the final image using highly available image editing software applications.
Current day solutions offer users tools for improving the final image of digital pictures using image editing solutions. However, these solutions have several drawbacks. The first is that most of these solutions are software applications which run on desktop computers and users are only able to perform the corrections after the images are downloaded to the computer. Additionally, these software applications, which offer users semiautomatic image correction tools, usually allow users to perform minor changes in the image since they do not have any additional visual data at their disposal.
Performing significant changes in the final image require substantial image editing skills and demand investing a lot of time in every picture to produce satisfactory results. Thus, in the current state of the art technology particular situations still hinder users from achieving the picture they wish to capture. For instance, trying to take a picture of a young child when she is looking directly at the camera and smiling might prove to be a frustrating task, as the photographer, busy persuading the child to look at the camera and smile, might miss the only instance in which she is doing so. As many parents know, even repeated attempts might yield unsatisfactory results. Similarly, a user taking a picture of a group of people, who wants to make sure that each and every person is in full view, is with their eyes open and looking at the camera may find that paying attention to many different details at the same time is a difficult task, especially if the group is in a dynamic ‘real-life’ situation and not posing especially for the picture. Additionally, if a flash is used when a picture is taken, it may cause significant color distortions and loss of details in particular areas of the picture, such as the red-eye effect and when objects in the picture reflect the bright light of the flash.
It may be concluded that there are two types of problems which users of still cameras face for which current day technology lacks adequate solutions: problems caused by the timing of the captured image and flash induced problems. There is therefore a need for a simple to operate solution for these problems which may be implemented in digital still camera devices. This solution should address both the timing and the flash induced problems in a semiautomatic fashion and should be implemented on any type of device that includes a camera. Since typically these devices have more memory than processing resources at their disposal, the proposed solution should rely on gathering visual data in real-time rather then on performing elaborate image analyzing procedures.